Automated Negotiation for Peer-to-Peer Trading of Renewable Energy in Off-Grid Communities

Electricity-access is a growing concern in developing countries of Sub-Saharan Africa where approximately 563million people (8% of the global population) lack electricity. Many use fossil-fuel generators and/or solar-home-systems (SHSs) with storage. Given the observed excess and unutilized electricity generated from these SHSs, a novel community peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity-market using automated negotiations is presented as a solution to improve access to electricity. Software agents representing World Bank Tiers 1 - 4 electricity-access households bilaterally negotiate electricity price and quantities applying five different negotiations heuristics. Simulation results show 65 - 100% trade of the excess generation; with Tiers 1 - 2 (low-income households) negotiating sufficient electricity (1 1.1kWh/day) at the least market-price of 0.35 pound/kWh to move to Tier 3. Likewise, the Tier 3 household agent negotiated 1.5kWh/day sufficient to meet its needs. This novel electricity-market model can help drive the United Nations goal of affordable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030.